WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Samuel Alito is rejecting calls to step away from Supreme Court cases involving former President Donald Trump and Jan. 6 suspects over the controversy over flags flown over his homes.
In letters to members of Congress on Wednesday, Alito said his wife was responsible for flying an upside-down flag over his home in 2021 and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at his New Jersey beach house last year.
Neither incident deserves his dismissal, he wrote.
“I am therefore obliged to deny your request for recusal,” he wrote.
The court is considering two key issues related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, including the charges the rioters face and whether Trump has immunity from prosecution on election interference charges .
Alito has rejected calls from Democrats in the past to back down on other issues.
The New York Times reported that an upside-down American flag was seen at Alito’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, less than two weeks after the attack on the Capitol. The newspaper also reported that an “Appeal to Heaven” flag was flown outside the judge’s beach house in New Jersey last summer. Both flags were carried by rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in January 2021, following Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
Alito said he was unaware the inverted flag was flying over his home until it was brought to his attention. “As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days she refused,” he wrote in nearly identical letters to Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
